Today's Path: Tag, Can Someone Else Be It?

It's been a while since I last posted. So I thought I would fill everyone in on the craziness of the past few weeks.

I have finished up training for my job, and then I jumped in head first. I was in Cincinnati with one of my co-workers. After Cincinnati, I went solo in St. Louis. I had presentations everyday. I now appreciate my teachers and professors even more. High school students are crazy! Those who were interested in what I was saying paid attention. Those who weren't interested did everything else.

My luck with flying is now gone. When I was leaving Cincinnati, my flight was canceled after we boarded the plane due to mechanical issues. So I was off to get on another flight. Well everyone was trying to get to Chicago. Therefore, most of the flights were booked solid when it was my turn. I was on stand-by for one flight and booked on another. Because of this, I was booked on two flights out of Chicago to get to St. Louis.

I was able to get on my stand-by flight. So I was off to Chicago. Once in Chicago, I realized my original flight had not left. At this point I just want to get to St. Louis, so I am running through the airport to get to the gate. I get there, and there had been a delay. So I was able to get on the flight.

As I am having my boarding pass scanned, they say I have already boarded the flight, but they let me on anyway. I am in the air again.

When I get to St. Louis, as the luck of my day, my luggage wasn't there. The next flight I could have been on arrived 20 minutes later. So I wait. No luggage. I go and file my claim. However, they wanted to compile my itinerary. "What flight did you fly out of Cincinnati on?" By now I have no clue and am not sure what boarding passes I used. We finally get it figured out, and I am off.

So four o'clock rolls around, and I get a phone call. My luggage arrived. Yay!!! But they want to know what flight I came on from Chicago. This is the only flight I know. Flight 761. "Um, we don't have a record of you boarding that flight." Really??? Because I did and that is how I got here.

I go on with my business for the week. Yesterday, I flew back to Phoenix from St. Louis. By this time I am an expert on making it through the airport and checking in. I thought. I go up to the kiosk and it won't let me check in. Now I proceed to the ticket counter. "I tried to use the kiosk, but I must have written my code down wrong." The lady behind the counter puts in my info and can't find my flights. She does notice that I didn't fly into St. Louis from Chicago. ????? At this point, I am confused.

I explain to the nice lady my dilemma from the week before. However, they no longer have access to the records from 8 days prior. She gets on the phone and tries to get everything figured out. Since they didn't believe me that I flew in on Flight 761, they locked my tickets, and I couldn't get out of St. Louis. After the nice lady speaking with what seemed to be 9 people, my tickets were opened, and I could proceed to security.

Woo Hoo!!!

I get to security. I have been tagged! Eff!!! I now have to go through extra security. I can only deduce it is because I was scheduled on 6 flights in one day the week before. But really? I don't think I fit the terrorist profile.

I am now back in Phoenix. The Valley of the Sun. I love my warm days!!

Wordless Wednesday

I remembered this week!

This is from my recent trip to Austin. I was at the Capital enjoying the shade.

Really Windows?

For several weeks now I have seen the commercial for Windows Mojave. It bothers me!

It just doesn't make any sense to me that you should have to teach everyone how to use your system. If Microsoft is going to try this hard to get everyone to understand Vista, wouldn't it be easier and more cost effective to make Vista more user friendly?

For those of you scratching your head still thinking Windows Mojave is the newest from Microsoft...enjoy!

Rock on,
Lane J

Today's Path: Secret Mission...well just a mission

This week was a week of travels and fun. It was my first week traveling with my job. I left last Saturday for Seattle. After two days in Seattle, I hopped on a plane Monday afternoon for Austin. Around 1am Tuesday morning I made it to the hotel. Wiped out, I passed out on the bed.

Tuesday I enjoyed a little piece of heaven. What I have wanted for 3 months. I found a Jimmy John's on 6th St. in downtown Austin. I was so excited to be eating some JJ's, I changed my status on Facebook. Little did I know this little action would cause a wave of JJ's craving through the Phoenix area. A few of my friends were so disappointed they couldn't enjoy one. Thus starting my mission.

I somehow had to get a JJ's sandwich to Phoenix. How I was going to do it was a mystery, but I was going to try. Not have a car to drive made things a little more difficult, but my friend Marcus was up for the challenge. The plan was to go make high school visits, eat lunch, go get JJ's and then go to the airport. With the airport restrictions I was afraid I was going to have to smother it through security somehow with the avocado spread and mayonnaise.

So we finished are visits, ate lunch and now were left to navigate through downtown Austin during rush hour. OMG! The traffic and drivers were horrible. (sorry for any of you reading this that live in Austin) Once we made it to downtown, we realized most of the streets were one way. You would think after spending most of a day in downtown I would know this, but you can walk anyway on the street so I didn't pay attention.

Twenty minutes into our search for which street went which way we found 6th and Congress. I jumped out of the car and ran to JJ's. I ordered the Veggie sandwich all liquids and pastes on the side. After strange looks and me explaining why I got the sandwich. We were off for the airport.

At the security check point, I hid the sandwich in my bag and made it through free and clear. No bag check! Whew! Now I sit at the gate waiting to get the precious package back to Phoenix. Hopefully the sandwich is as wonderful 2 hrs from now as they are fresh.

Rocking out in Austin,
Lane J

Today's Path: What makes up what we are

I am a Scrubs fanatic! Zach Braff is my hero, or maybe John Dorian is. I'm not sure. But back to my main purpose here...

I was watching Scrubs a couple days ago, and it came to the point in the show were someone says something significant. The point where even the most ridiculous movie or TV show it makes you stop and think, "I guess that makes some sense."

All the craziness was coming to an end and Dr. Cox came by and said something, but J.D. put it all together and said,

We all know that Dr. Cox was right. Your memories make up who you are. The joyful ones and the painful ones.

We sometimes wish we could forget our painful memories, whether it be losing someone close to you or something done or said by a friend that hurts you so bad you wish they weren't your friend anymore. These memories help shape who we are and who we will be.

Yeah, I wish there were days I wasn't as close to people who have hurt me because then it would be easier to forget them. But on the flip side, sometimes you are so close to someone you rationalize what they have done to make it hurt less. Yet, you still remember what they did and the initial hurt.

Even though we hate these feelings, they are a part of you. You come out on the other side stronger.

Rock on,
Lane J

Today's Path: "Run a 5K" - Check

After starting running in Mid-June, I completed my first 5k Race today! Yes that is right I got up at 5am today to run 3.1 miles with 180 other people. Today was the Remember 9/11 race.

My only goal today was to run the entire race. NO walking! And not only did I run the entire race, I ran it in 30:50. For those of you trying to do the math, that is a 9:56 mile. I finished 88 over all. Right in the middle of the pack.

However, the best part was finishing 3rd out seven in my division. No not the slow people division. The 18-24 female division. The next closest person was three minutes behind me. Finishing 3rd means I got a medal.


I think the best part of the day was having my friends run with me. Rachel finished first in her division and first female over all. Meredith finished 2nd in her division. Mike finished 3rd in his division, and Dennis finished 4th in his division. 4 out of 5 of us got medals. Not a bad outing for the day.

The sad part of today, we all forgot our cameras. So this is the first of My 50 List that doesn't have a picture from the event. But here are some clips from the Results Site and my number and medal.



Next race is TBD, but the PF Changs Half Marathon is looking good!

Rock on,
Lane J

Today's Path: Gum vs. Meals

At lunch there is always some random conversation going on. The good thing about today's conversation was it didn't make me turn five shades of red. It also brought about several good points.

Work has been busy lately trying to get the fall semester started, and, well, we are kind of stretched for time. Time is a premium. And lunch is school cafeteria food. We could go out for lunch, but I don't have mucho dinero right now seeing how I just bought a car.

So back to the main point...

We were trying to figure out how to have a delicious meal and at the same time maximize our time. This is what we came up with. Listen up now bubble gum industry and food industry.

Remember back to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Violet was the one who ate the bubble gum and turn, get this, violet. The main point, the bubble gum. We were trying to figure it out if there was a way to create a bubble gum that went through five different courses and gave us the calories that we needed with out the carbs.

In summary this is what we are looking for:

• A bubble gum that will substitute for lunch
• It still gives us the nutrition and calories for energy
• 5 course meals in gum
• The packaging displays the nutritional value of each piece of gum
• And most importantly it can't change us colors!!!

So if someone could start making this, you have some buyers here in Phoenix!!

What are you discussing during lunch? Anything interesting?

Keep being the Rock Stars you are,
Lane J